Hamilton beware: F1 stars that had a Ferrari nightmare

The 640 was plagued with reliability issues, and eventually it turned out that a fault alternator belt was the cause. The following 641 should have been Barnard’s masterpiece, but was in fact just a re-heated 640, with the designer leaving just as Prost arrived.

“Had I known [Prost was coming], perhaps I’d have stayed,” he told Motor Sport.

Despite this, the Frenchman had one of his best years in 1990, almost willing the Ferrari to five wins in a fierce battle with Senna until the Brazilian quite literally took Prost out of championship contention at the first corner of the penultimate round in Suzuka.

It’s a cliché that when things aren’t going well, Ferrari always finds a scapegoat. In 1991, that person was Prost.

Neither he nor new signing Jean Alesi scored any wins all season in the lacklustre 643 car, and after the second-to-last race in Japan, Prost likened his to a truck. He was promptly fired.

Ivan Capelli – 1992

Following Prost’s removal, rising star Ivan Capelli was lined up as the Scuderia’s next victim in 1992.

The Milanese ace had been a key part of the Leyton House team, nearly winning the 1990 French GP in a car designed by Adrian Newey.

When Leyton House went under at the end of 1991, Ferrari moved to bring in Capelli to partner Jean Alesi.

However, what should have been the realisation of a dream for the Italian turned out to be the complete opposite.

The Ferrari F92A was hopeless – even worse than the ’91 car – as Capelli told Motor Sport some years later.

“I was shocked when I tested the car for the first time in Estoril,” he said. “I’d been driving the 1991 car, but on the last day, in the afternoon, I was finally allowed to try the F92A for the first time and could tell straight away it didn’t feel right. During the debrief I didn’t say, ‘Look, we have a s**t car,’ but I pointed out that we needed to refine the front suspension and the aero – it required a lot of work.

“When they switched to Jean on the other side of the table, he told them the car was fantastic, that he could win races and challenge for the championship. I pointed out that we were 1.5sec slower than Williams, but they just said I didn’t understand and chose to believe Jean. For me, the whole thing was a nightmare from about day two, with lots of political stuff that I simply never had during my March and Leyton House days, when we worked as a family.”

Capelli only scored points twice all year, and he was out before the season was over. His F1 career never recovered.

Fernando Alonso – 2010-2014

Fernando Alonso’s 2010 transfer to Ferrari was something he’d been after ever since leaving McLaren in acrimony at the end of 2007.

With one superstar already installed in the form of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa going nowhere, previously there’d been no room at the inn, so the Spaniard bided his time at Renault.

The Finn was moved on by the Scuderia at the end of ’09, as the team laid a path for Alonso.

Sadly, it never gave him a car good enough to challenge for a third title which still eludes him, but with Ferrari the Spaniard got as close as he ever has.

Twice dragging an under par machine into contention, Alonso agonisingly lost out in both 2010 and 2012 to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

In the first instance the Spaniard actually led the championship going into the final round in Abu Dhabi, and finishing second or better would secure him the title no matter what else happened.

It all went wrong when he got stuck behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov after a mistimed pitstop though, and Alonso coming home seventh meant the crown went to young upstart Vettel.

Then, at the 2012 finale in Brazil, it looked like Alonso was sitting pretty when Vettel got turned around by a back-marker on the opening lap.

Unfortunately for the Ferrari man, the Red Bull driver fought back to sixth while Alonso finished runner-up, securing Vettel the championship by three points.

Things soured between Alonso and Ferrari over the next two seasons, and matters hit rock-bottom when Alonso was asked what he would like for his birthday after disappointing run to fifth at the 2014 Hungarian GP: “A new car,” he replied.

The Spaniard would leave at the end of the year.

Sebastian Vettel – 2015-2020

Sebastian Vettel would join Ferrari as Alonso’s replacement, and though his tenure was longer there, it would end in similar fashion.

The honeymoon period was reasonable, Vettel winning three races in 2015 – had the Scuderia found its new saviour?

By 2017 the Ferrari had a car that could challenge for the title, and Vettel fought it out with Lewis Hamilton until a first lap collision with Räikkönen and Max Verstappen in Singapore sent his campaign on a downward spiral.

It would be a similar story in 2018. Once more he would fight for the F1 crown, but crashes in Germany and Italy handed an initiative to Hamilton which he would never relinquish.

Vettel came in for much criticism from the Italian press and fans, and the relationship with his team went downhill in 2019 as the car proved less competitive. To add to his woes, Vettel was immediately outpaced by his new young team-mate Charles Leclerc.

2020 was even worse as neither driver won a race, while Ferrari looked to the future in a bid revive its fortunes. The writing was on the wall, in scarlet red: Leclerc was the chosen one, while Vettel was yesterday’s news. He left to join Aston Martin.